First ₹1 crore is always earned through active income & skills: Anant Ladha

Anant Ladha, financial educator and creator, has advised people not to treat every investment option as either completely good or completely bad.

The first ₹1 crore is always earned through active income and skills, said Anant Ladha, financial educator and creator, in a conversation with Khushboo Tiwari at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2026’s Smart Investor Arena on Monday.

 

He said that “the biggest asset class available right now is ourselves”, but people often fail to invest in themselves. He urged young people to focus on building their skills and increasing their active income to reach the first ₹1 crore.

 

"As a youngster, if you are not investing in yourself and your active income, you will not be able to reach the first 1 crore mark. Once you reach that mark, the journey from ₹1 crore to ₹10 crore may be comparatively easy," he said.

 

 

Ladha said that while the younger generation’s SIPs and saving habits have no competitor in terms of asset classes, their biggest competitor is their lifestyle. EMI, he said, is the biggest enemy of financial freedom.

 

“We want financial freedom, but we are not able to get ourselves free from our own EMI,” he said during the discussion on ‘How should young Indians approach wealth creation?’. “Inflation may be at 6 per cent, but the lifestyle inflation among India’s youth is at 15-20 per cent.”

 

Ladha advised people not to treat every investment option as either completely good or completely bad. He said that "it is fine to explore new asset classes, but take risks only when you can afford them and understand what you are investing in." 

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"Spending is not necessarily a problem. The risk arises when expenses and debt become excessive," Ladha said, adding that he never recommends taking a loan against investments to meet daily expenses.

 

"The consumption market in India is growing at a great pace because of changing habits, and that is a good thing. Someone’s expenditure is someone else’s income. Spending is good for the economy, provided it is not funded by debt,” he said. 

 

On portfolio diversification, he said that an investor may consider allocating around 5-10 per cent of funds to international markets. At the same time, he said that fixed deposits are not bad investments. "What matters is the asset allocation. Different investments serve different purposes."

 

"An FD may provide stability when equity markets are weak, while equities may be more suitable for long-term goals. The right choice depends on the investor’s time horizon, goals, and risk tolerance. Listed bonds, non-convertible debentures and structured products also carry different risks, which investors should understand before investing," he said. READ MORE: ₹3 crore retirement corpus can be enough for many Indians: Neha Nagar

 

Responding to a question on the prolonged Indian market consolidation, Ladha said that investors need to understand that markets move in cycles. “This kind of shift is normal. An economy and its companies cannot grow at the same pace forever. Investors need to understand that earnings growth and market returns change over time. They should not assume that recent performance will continue indefinitely,” he said.

 

"We should try to make decisions logically and use historical data, rather than reacting to every market move," he advised. READ MORE: Without strong SIP inflows, markets could have fallen 40-50%: Vikas Satija